The concept of health is a social construction defined by the historical-cultural contexts of societies. At the moment, this context is characterized by global challenges such as climate change, energy crisis, the north-south divide, and poverty, among others. In view of these challenges, sustainable development has emerged as a proposal to cope with these drawbacks of the Western development model. In this sense, it is plausible to suppose, in accordance with a new global scenario of sustainable development, that a new conception of health is also emerging. For that reason, this paper aims at identifying this renewed concept of health, together with related concepts which are mentioned in the official documents on sustainable development originated in the world summits. Despite the fact that the concepts of health and sustainable development have been understood as being equivalent, none of the aforementioned official documents has provided societies with an explicit concept of health. It was verified that the concept of health has been associated with that of need satisfaction and preservation of ecosystems, whereas the construct of illness is associated with the concepts of poverty and high consumption levels. Finally, it is concluded that health is an intermediate goal of sustainable development and not an end in itself.

History shows that society looks to education to develop the values, knowledge and skills needed to address contemporary challenges and to create the kind of society and lifestyles that are appropriate to the time, place and context. This is particularly so in times of crisis and rapid change such as those encountered today. The inter-related issues of climate change, environmental degradation, globalisation and the global financial crisis (GFC), population explosion, growing intercultural and inter-religious conflict, and increasing social concerns and inequities, confront education with many complex challenges. This policy-oriented study examines the nature of these global challenges and ways of addressing them through values-based Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with specific reference to key international documents and reports. It identifies the most commonly expressed values, knowledge and skills involved in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in a selection of United Nations (UN) documents and international agreements relevant to key socio-cultural, socio-economic, and environmental perspectives of sustainable development. These are collated, analysed and presented as a guide for schooling to address, while complementing local cultural and national values. The global values are compared to Australian values...

UNESCO has recommended the launch of pilot projects to use biosphere reserves as learning laboratories or spaces to address the gap between biosphere reserve knowledge systems (scientific, experiential, and indigenous) and the imperative for wider sustainable development. In this regard, a pilot project in the Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve (CBBR) in northern Vietnam has been initiated. The project has three major aims that address: • the needs of UNESCO/MAB and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) initiative by contributing to sustainable development knowledge and education globally; • the environment (e.g. biodiversity), livelihood of people (e.g. poverty alleviation) and economic benefits (such as sharing in the revenue from a booming tourism industry); and • the adoption of policies and processes by Government and management bodies to ensure that long term sustainable management will become institutionalised and ongoing. This paper discusses the use of systems thinking concepts and tools in creating learning laboratories for sustainable development. The biosphere reserve and sustainable development literature as well as the learning laboratories for sustainable development concept will be briefly described. The importance of systems thinking methodology and applications to deal with ever-increasing complexities of sustainable development will be discussed. A Causal Loop Model of Cat Ba Biosphere Reserve integrating policy...

The UC3M group of “Global environmental change and sustainable development: social trends and emerging policies” offers its experience on the following fields:
• Sustainable Development.
• Environmental Education.
• Agenda 21.
• Sustainable Cities and Sustainable Land Planning.
• Environmental Impact Evaluation.
• Sustainable Transport and Mobility.
• Social Management and Saving Policies (energy, waste, water, noise).
Within this framework, the work of this research group aims to:
1) The analysis and diagnosis of how Global Environmental Change and Sustainable Development can affect each specific organization.
2) The proposal of solutions.
3) The management of their implementation.
4) Instruction and training.
These objectives are tackled from their basic study to their applied development through reports and consultancy services.

The paper presents an analysis of the interrelationship of law, policy and knowledge under conditions of globalization. The paper's basic premise is that the emergence of the sustainable development policy has been driven by an expanding awareness of the world as a singular and interdependent entity. The principal argument is that the policy of sustainable development is part of a wider epistemic shift, which means that the global community at large understands the world differently today than 50-60 years ago when the United Nations and the Bretton Woods-inspired institutions were established. The theory of change underlying these policies represents, therefore, a shift from the model of economic development, which builds on the idea of separation and functional specialization, to a model of sustainable development, which builds on interdependence and integration. It is suggested that the sustainable development policy provideds us with a key to develop a common theoretical framework for explaining the implications of the epistemic shift, but, giving effect to the shift will require research and co-operation between a wide range of disciplines. It is further suggested that expanding the concept of law provides a necessary condition for making the epistemic shift operational as a new paradigm in a global governance context. In conclusion...

Examining Board: Professor Marise Cremona, European University Institute (Supervisor) Professor Ernst Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute Professor Markus Gehring, University of Cambridge, England Professor Adriana Dreyzin de Klor, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.; Defence date: 5 June 2013; This thesis addresses the implementation of sustainable development in the legal frameworks of regional integration agreements (RIAs). Sustainable development is reaffirmed as one of the main priorities of the international community, while poverty eradication and the integration of socio-environmental concerns into all governance levels remain the most pressing challenges to its implementation. Furthermore, the role of law is considered fundamental for sustainable development, but there remains a lack of analysis of how legal frameworks are effectively advancing this objective. In this regard, the thesis focuses on the laws and policies of two of the most important RIAs in force, the European Union and MERCOSUR, with a twofold objective: 1) to analyze how RIAs can provide enabling legal frameworks for the promotion of sustainable development, going beyond trade liberalization and serving as a building block between multilateral goals and their implementation at the national level; 2) to provide case studies of norms and policies developed at the regional level addressing a) poverty eradication and social justice within their internal spheres; b) trade policies and instruments that more effectively integrate socioenvironmental objectives. The research undertaken has also a comparative element that enables the consideration of whether the EU...

The aim of this discussion paper is to
ascertain the government of Lao's (GoL) current
practices in negotiating, awarding, and managing land
concessions; enhance GoL understanding and commitments to
develop national capacities targeting improved land
management, that will generate revenues for GoL, and ensure
sustainable development as an urgent priority; and provide a
basis for dialogue within the government to enable its
determination of priorities to better address land
development issues in Laos, to enable the achievement of
sustainable, responsible economic development. The paper
also examines key issues revolving around the sustainable
utilization of land, and the mechanisms, through an
examination of GoL s policy statements. The findings are
provided, and the report advises that GoL pay special
attention to four major points: the availability of adequate
and accurate information on which to make decisions on
concessions; adequate capacity within GoL agencies to
determine, award and monitor/oversee the operation of
concessions; and governance over land and natural resources.
These points of guidance are expected to contribute towards
developing sustainable approaches for land administration
and management programs in Lao PDR...

peer-reviewed; National policy has aimed at making development more sustainable. However,
successful movement towards this goal is not well documented. Some shortcomings in the move towards more sustainable development are the result of unexpected outcomes with regard to policy goals and behaviour. Some previously accepted relationships between indicators are now coming into question. A better understanding of the relationships between infrastructure, behaviour, environment and attitudes is needed to improve the ability of policies to increase the sustainability of settlements.
The EPA-Funded project Sustainability and Future Settlement Patterns in Ireland
(SFSPI) conducted at the University of Limerick’s Centre for Environmental
Research (CER) examined the relative sustainability of 79 Irish settlements (cities, towns, and villages) across three regions of Ireland (Sligo, Midlands, and Limerick).
The resulting database contains 43 sustainable development indicators and indices for environmental, socio-economic, quality of life, and transport domains. The SFSPI database also produced Ecological Footprints (EF), and component footprints for
energy, waste, water, food, and transport for each study settlement.
This research, designed to complement the SFSPI project...

The Subject evidences the importance of the proposition of indicators of sustainable development for Agricultural Nestings, with the objective to support of the decisions of the governmental bodies and managers of a general form, in the implantation, accompaniment, support and evaluation to the implanted projects and to be implanted. Through the historical analysis of the brazilian agrarian question and the chosen theorical landmarks: the indicators of sustainable development; and family agriculture, was possible to know the theoretical structure witch involves the subject. Regarding the indicators of sustainable development it was proceeded a research concerning it s evolution, identifying the main studies about: the work of construction indicators of sustainable development led by the Commission for Sustainable Development CDS, of the United Nations; indicators of sustainable development Brazil 2004, of the IBGE; of the Balaton Group (Donella Meadows and others), in the Triângulo de Daly ; of the Bossel project; of the Monet model of Switzerland; and, the total socio-ecologial system, of the CEPAL. The boarding of the theorical landmark Familiar Agriculture included the analysis of some definitions and it s categories and identified the types...

Economic think tanks predict India to be the world's largest economy by 2050. This would require India to accelerate its industrial and infrastructure development. Industrialization based economic development will have a negative impact on the environment and hence sustainable development. Such steps could affect the social and environmental bottom line of the national economy. In recent years, a number of regulatory measures have been proposed by the Indian government to ensure corporate support to the goals of sustainable and inclusive development. The objective of these regulations is to achieve triple bottom line based growth. Notable among them is the mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) guidelines for public sector undertakings, first issued in April, 2010. I study the possibility and problems created by this effort by analyzing the policy documents and interviewing managers responsible for implementing CSR programmers in Indian public sector. Managers interviewed came from hydropower, coal, power distribution and shipping industries. Based on the study, four areas are identified that requires attention for effective linking between sustainable development and CSR; stakeholder engagement, institutional mechanisms, capacity building and knowledge management. Both government-public sector and public sector-community engagements have to be more streamlined. Institutional mechanisms have to be developed to see that CSR projects are effective and delivering. Importantly...

The Subject evidences the importance of the proposition of indicators of sustainable development for Agricultural Nestings, with the objective to support of the decisions of the governmental bodies and managers of a general form, in the implantation, accompaniment, support and evaluation to the implanted projects and to be implanted. Through the historical analysis of the brazilian agrarian question and the chosen theorical landmarks: the indicators of sustainable development; and family agriculture, was possible to know the theoretical structure witch involves the subject. Regarding the indicators of sustainable development it was proceeded a research concerning it s evolution, identifying the main studies about: the work of construction indicators of sustainable development led by the Commission for Sustainable Development CDS, of the United Nations; indicators of sustainable development Brazil 2004, of the IBGE; of the Balaton Group (Donella Meadows and others), in the Triângulo de Daly ; of the Bossel project; of the Monet model of Switzerland; and, the total socio-ecologial system, of the CEPAL. The boarding of the theorical landmark Familiar Agriculture included the analysis of some definitions and it s categories and identified the types...

Byrne, John; Climate change and sustainable development are both challenging issues for developing countries, as they need to allocate their limited financial, human and technical resources to more immediate and urgent needs such as education, sanitary and infrastructure construction. Policy objectives on climate change and development may be conflicting in the short term but they could also be complementary. This dissertation explores potential synergies between climate change mitigation and sustainable development policies and proposes to integrate policy objectives of climate change mitigation and sustainable development in developing countries. Particularly, this dissertation focuses on China as China is currently undergoing a fundamental change in the social economy and China already became the largest GHGs emissions in the world. This dissertation investigates, at the national level, whether China's sustainable development policies climate friendly and whether China's climate change mitigation policies contribute to national sustainable development. Integration of climate change mitigation and sustainable development policy objectives in the development and implementation of CDM program is examined, which is partially because that CDM is designed with twin objectives on emissions reduction and sustainable development...

Sustainable development is widely accepted in the world. How to reflect the sustainable development capacity of a region is an important issue for enacting policies and plans. An index system for capacity assessment is established by employing the Entropy Weight Coefficient method. The results indicate that the sustainable development capacity of Shandong Province is improving in terms of its economy subsystem, resource subsystem, and society subsystem whilst degrading in its environment subsystem. Shandong Province has shown the general trend towards sustainable development. However, the sustainable development capacity can be constrained by the resources such as energy, land, water, as well as environmental protection. These issues are induced by the economy development model, the security of energy supply, the level of new energy development, the end-of-pipe control of pollution, and the level of science and technology commercialization. Efforts are required to accelerate the development of the tertiary industry, the commercialization of high technology, the development of new energy and renewable energy, and the structure optimization of energy mix. Long-term measures need to be established for the ecosystem and environment protection.; Qingsong Wang...

It is universally accepted that renewable energy is an important contributing factor towards the promotion of sustainable development. The implementation of renewable energy needs to be regulated in an effective manner which in turn necessitates the formulation of law and policy geared towards sustainable development. Recent policy developments in South Africa propose to facilitate the promotion of sustainable development through the implementation of renewable energy, among others. In terms of existing energy policy in South-Africa, the interconnectivity of renewable energy and sustainable development is evident. Most notably, the White Paper on Renewable Energy of 2003 promotes increased access to affordable renewable energy in order to contribute to sustainable development. Moreover, the 2008 first review of the National Energy Efficiency Strategy of the Republic of South-Africa of 2005 states that in order for the country's renewable energy policy to be considered sustainable, it needs to facilitate development in the social, economic and environmental spheres. Notwithstanding, attaining the goal of sustainable development depends on whether all its effecting principles are catered for in the policy developments. Accordingly, in order to ascertain whether South-African law and policy can successfully facilitate/enable sustainable development via the implementation of renewable energy...

This article introduces some legal perspectives on the role of culture in sustainable development. The authors agree that sustainable development has been designed as an environmental concept but that room exists for the more prominent inclusion of some form(s) of the notion "culture" in the sustainable development equation. It is shown that the fluid nature and meaning of "culture" may require a distinction between the role of "culture" per se and the role of "cultural governance" in the sustainable development context. It is suggested that "cultural governance" as a notion may be more distinct and exact than "culture" itself. The more functional notion of "good cultural governance" is preferred as a benchmark in the sustainable development equation, with the implication that cultural governance occurs in accordance with a certain standard. This standard is briefly considered by looking at the meaning of good cultural governance as a notion that encompasses both cultural governance and good governance generally. The article is set in the South African context but also invokes some law and policy developments internationally, regionally and sub-regionally to depict how issues of culture have been infiltrating the sustainable development discourse and to distil some of the substantive benchmarks for good cultural governance.